The legacy of tetraethyl lead

Accounts of lead exposure are sprinkled throughout human history. Lead poisoning remained a rare disorder, confined mostly to mine workers, until the early 20th century when lead found its way into the consumer market in the form of lead solder on food cans, paints, pesticides, toothpaste packaging and water stored in lead-lined tanks. However, it was the introduction of tetra-Et lead, a gasoline additive that prevents common engine knocking, that dramatically introduced lead into the Earth's biosphere. Tetra-Et lead increased lead levels in every inhabitant of earth, and years after the protracted battle to ban lead from gasoline, remains a legacy that is with us today and in our bodies.